Encounters: Playboi Carti Conquers the Paris Runway

PARIS — The black Rolls-Royce Phantom cut through Parisian streets like a hammerhead shark, circling the Arc de Triomphe, gliding along the Seine and nosing past the Louvre’s glass pyramid. Playboi Carti, a 21-year-old rapper from Atlanta, slouched in the curtained back seat with braids dangling over his eyes, silently absorbing the view while blaring his latest album, “Die Lit,” which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart. “I took you out the ’hood / I took you to my shows,” he raps in the song “Home.” “We took a lot of pics, and now we look like goals.” It was the morning of June 21 during Paris Men’s Fashion Week , and Playboi Carti (born Jordan Carter) was headed to the Jardin du Palais Royal to walk in the Louis Vuitton show . It was the ballyhooed first collection from Virgil Abloh, consigliere to Kanye West, founder of Off-White and Louis Vuitton’s first Afric...